Normally, when one player runs out of time, they lose the game. In my most recent match :
http://en.lichess.org/hrUVsDpJQCj8My opponent runs out of time, but it is marked that the game is a draw. What happened?
You can't win with a lone king
http://en.lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/opponet-time-out-why-draw#4Think of it like this: To win, you need to mate the opponent within your available time. When time runs out for one player he can't move anymore while you finish him of in x number of moves, if you can't do that it will be a draw.
I dont think ive ever seen this rule before. I always thought, especially with blitz and bullet, that any clock flag is loss.
So, if my time runs out, but I can prove to the arbiter that I could have forced perpetual check, and that my opponent checkmating is impossible, does that count as a draw?
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As long there is not enough material to checkmate, it's draw.
Useful to note, it comes up regularly in Blitz. If say White has plenty of material but is about to lose on time, and Black has e.g. only a knight and a pawn left, then White's strategy should be to sac something for the pawn before the flag falls (= draw, because K+N cannot mate); Black should try to hang on to the pawn at all costs (= win for Black, because a pawn can theoretically promote).
This is the official rule:
"if a player does not complete the prescribed number of moves in the allotted time, the game is lost by that player. However, the game is drawn if the position is such that the opponent cannot checkmate the player’s king by any possible series of legal moves. "
#4 The important thing here is "legal moves": it doesn't help you if by best play you could have forced a draw or even a win. As long as there's any way that they could mate you, the flag-fall will count as a win for them, even if it would have required you to make bad moves and thus help them do it.
#7 Note that there is a difference between games played under official FIDE rules and games played on Lichess. On Lichess you can never be awarded a win on time if you only have a knight left, but that's not true in over the board chess: With King and Knight against King and Bishop or King and Pawn you can win on time, because there is a legal way to mate!
